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From
Christianity.com:
In the sack of Rome, Christians died alongside pagans. Some Christian
women suffered rape, although the Visigoths claimed to be Christians,
too. Some of these women, following the historical example of the famous
pagan girl, Lucretia, killed themselves for shame. Others fled to North
Africa as refugees, where they were taunted by pagans, who asked them
why their God did not protect them or else accused them of cowardice for
not killing themselves.
Why had Christians suffered in the taking of Rome? According to the
Bible, God would have spared Sodom if there had been just ten righteous
souls in it. Yet here was a city with thousands of Christians--a major
church center, too--and yet God allowed it to be ravaged. Pagans blamed
Christian pacifists.
Various people put this question to the greatest living Christian
thinker of the day. Augustine of Hippo responded by writing a
masterpiece, The City of God and the City of Man. This was the
world's first "modern" history in the sense that it offered an account
of world history with a teleological explanation--that is, an
explanation showing that events have "purpose," or destination.
Augustine took a different approach than Jerome. Giving a Christian
interpretation to the events, he pointed out that the barbarian invaders
had spared most of the churches and that even pagans had taken refuge in
the Christian churches. Christians had always suffered and would always
suffer, in this world, he noted. To phrase it in modern cliche, God had
never promised the Christian a bed of roses. (Read more.)
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